BMW Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan produced a battling performance on track at Thruxton to secure a brace of top six finishes from... More...

Jordan and Pirtek Racing battle at Oulton Park

09/06/2014 | Racing

It was a tough day for Andrew Jordan and Pirtek Racing at Oulton Park on Sunday (8 June) with a best finish of eighth place following a lowly 13th place in qualifying ahead of rounds 10, 11 and 12 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

Andrew always knew that the challenging Cheshire track would be tough for the Pirtek Honda Civic as it went into qualifying carrying the maximum 45kg of success ballast.

However, 13th on the grid was less than Andrew and the team expected after a late red flag on a drying track cost them a best lap in the closing minutes of the session. Andrew’s data showed that the car had the pace to qualify in the top six. However, starting 13th was to be a huge handicap on a day when overtaking proved extremely difficult on the full International circuit.

“The car wasn’t good in race one but if we’d qualified sixth or seventh, we’d have run where we qualified,” said Andrew after finishing the race in 15th place. “In race two, we lost the weight and that made the car better and we might have made a bit of progress, but not much.” However, tenth place was the best that he could manage as he ran in a big pack of very evenly-matched cars. He had made up two places, but was nudged into a big slide at the fast left-hander at Cascades and lost the places as he fought to get the car straight again.

“With how good we made the car for race two and taking the weight out, starting from 15th I’d have expected to make the top six, but there was just nowhere to overtake,” said a frustrated Andrew.

There was some hope for race three after a heavy rainstorm left the track wet and slippery for the final race of the day. “We had an eighth in the last race, but we just weren’t there with the car,” said Andrew. “Normally in those conditions I’d have been confident of getting into the top six, but we just didn’t have the pace.

“It’s been a poor weekend, but we’re not going to panic about it. It all stemmed from qualifying because we’ve seen from the racing today that there’s just been no overtaking,” he concluded. Despite the frustrations of Oulton Park, Andrew still holds third place in the overall drivers’ standings with 18 races still to run.

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